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12 Jan 2010, 01:07

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Difficulty:

55% (hard)

Question Stats:

57%(02:02) correct
43%(01:12) wrong based on 934 sessions

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Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers. Through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers.

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population

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12 Jan 2010, 02:30

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aniec wrote:

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers. Irrelevant

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process itthis strengthens the argument since travel agents will be required if the consumers cannot thmselves process the information.

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent. Irrelevant.The question is not how they consumers travel but whther they use they use the services of the travel agents or not.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies Correct.If the people who currently use the services of the travel agents gain access to new info technologies, the utility of a travel agent is lost.It mosts seriously weakens the argument.

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the populationThis option talks about people in general who use the IT services and just about the people who use the services of a travel agent.

OA plz
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12 Jan 2010, 04:24

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mojorising800 wrote:

aniec wrote:

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers. Irrelevant

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process itthis strengthens the argument since travel agents will be required if the consumers cannot thmselves process the information.

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent. Irrelevant.The question is not how they consumers travel but whther they use they use the services of the travel agents or not.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologiesIncorrect. Strengthens the argument

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the populationCorrect.If the number of people who use internet and other new information technologies are lesser in proportion to the population then travel agents do not face a risk of being out of demand!!!

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12 Jan 2010, 04:40

mojorising800 wrote:

aniec wrote:

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers. Irrelevant

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process itthis strengthens the argument since travel agents will be required if the consumers cannot thmselves process the information.

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent. Irrelevant.The question is not how they consumers travel but whther they use they use the services of the travel agents or not.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies Correct.If the people who currently use the services of the travel agents gain access to new info technologies, the utility of a travel agent is lost.It mosts seriously weakens the argument.

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the populationThis option talks about people in general who use the IT services and just about the people who use the services of a travel agent.

OA plz

I choose D. However OA is B, which I think is an error.

The question says "Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced " because informations are now available to customs. But if the people who are most likely to use these informations are the custom of the travel agents, then the conclusion is weaken.

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12 Jan 2010, 05:00

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I think OA is right

The argument says that demand for travel agents will be reduced.We're looking for a statement that says the opposite; i.e demand for travel agents will increase.

B does that. B weakens the argument that demand for travel agent will reduce.It says there is too much information available for use by consumers. Consumers will thus look to travel agents to organize it for them. And so demand for travel agents will increase.

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10 Aug 2014, 13:20

aniec wrote:

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers.

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population

This one is a tricky one and I fell for the trap I have 2 doubts that I need to clarify. Someone please help me in clarifying them.

doubt1 : In option B, can we consider travel agents a subset of "most consumers" ?doubt2 : Would option D be correct, if the phrasing were : The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gainhave access to new information technologies

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14 Jun 2015, 10:50

aniec wrote:

This one is a tricky one and I fell for the trap I have 2 doubts that I need to clarify. Someone please help me in clarifying them.

doubt1 : In option B, can we consider travel agents a subset of "most consumers" ?

Nope! Travel agents are not considered a subset of 'most consumers'.

The option gives us information about 'most consumers. As the amount of information and technologies are increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumer to process the information, these consumers may need some help. The argument tells us that travel agents gather and organize information. As the travel agents may still be required by most consumers, the conclusion that "Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced" weakens. In this case, the demand may continue to remain same.

Quote:

doubt2 : Would option D be correct, if the phrasing were : The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gainhave access to new information technologies

I think it would go against the premise: "dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers through new information technologies".

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it this wins over E because it tells us that even though the material is avail on line and people have access to it, travel agents will still be in demand because it is not easy for people to collate and infer from vast amount of source avail on net so people will finally revert to travel agent...

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the populationhere it tells us that the net and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population so may be today people bank upon travel agents for info but what happens in future when these tech becomes accessible to most of the people.. we have no surety that they would still go back to travel agents.. so it does not weaken the argument , it only tells us that may be the damage is not now but possibly in near future..

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17 Oct 2015, 01:06

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aniec wrote:

Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers. Through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Travel agents routinely use the internet and other new information technologies as sources for the information they obtain for their customers.

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it

C. Many people use travel-related services, such as airlines and hotels without consulting a travel agent.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population

This is a very beautiful GMAT question, which has a lot of traps.

Where are the traps? The GMAT likes using qualifiers to lure test takers into traps. So what are the qualifiers here? Present and future.

The conclusion states, "Demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced."

We are asked to WEAKEN the question. But read the conclusion carefully. We are talking about the FUTURE. Any answer choice that DOES NOT address the FUTURE is wrong. Now look at these answer choices:

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies --- This may be true. But does it affect the conclusion that the demand for services WILL BE (FUTURE) will be drastically reduced?

E. The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population --- This may be true. But does it affect the conclusion that the demand for services WILL BE (FUTURE) will be drastically reduced?

Do not get me wrong. During my early prep I always made this error. Seems to me this is one of GMAC's favourite traps.

What are other examples of this? I wrote them in my notebook. The pattern in questions (OG, GMAT PREP, Exam Pack, everything!) is just too obvious.

Conclusion: talks about strength of the wooden sled (this is from OG, I will not forget this question)Wrong answer choice: correct but talks about plastic sled (very tempting)

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05 Dec 2015, 07:30

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The first problem in this question is that it is not the full version of Gmat Exam pack 1's question. A very important in the conclusion is omitted.

"Travel agents are market intermediaries who make their living by gathering, organizing, and dispensing information about travel-related services that is not readily available to most consumers. Through new information technologies, such as the internet much of this information can now be made directly available to consumers. Therefor, as more consumers gain access to these new technologies, demand for the services of travel agents will be drastically reduced.

And this explains why many confused in wrong choices D and E.

D says: "The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies ". This statement actually strengthens the argument because these people are going to be able to access to information in internet as well as in other technologies, thus leaving the travel agents => INCORRECT

E says: "The internet and other new information technologies are currently used by a relatively small proportion of the population". On the one hand, this statement does not affect the conclusion, as the conclusion says "as more consumers gain access to these new technologies...", so we don't care about "currently small proportion".

On the other hand, statement E could strengthen the conclusion because if currently the proportion of people gaining access to internet is low, then the impact of a larger proportion on the travel agents will be huge. However, if this statement had been like "the proportion of people gaining access to internet currently is very large, say 99%", then the conclusion would have been weaken because there could not have "drastic reduction".

However, for the OA B, I still could not figure out how it could weaken the conclusion. It says that "the capabilities of consumers to process information is increasing lower than the amount of information is". It does not mean that consumer cannot process information. So in order to infer that consumers will have to come back to travel agents, we actually need an important assumption.

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22 Dec 2015, 16:19

B. The amount of information available through the internet and other new information technologies is increasing faster than the capabilities of most consumers to process it

Implies that consumers will still need travel agents to "gather, organize, and dispense information" because consumers aren't capable of processing the overload of information from the internet.

D. The people who currently use the services of travel agents are also those most likely to gain access to new information technologies

Potentially strengthens the argument that consumers will have less need for travel agents thereby leading to the argument's conclusion that "demand for travel agents" will fall significantly. Our goal is to weaken, not strengthen.